

By Colleen Scott, NYSOFA Advocacy Specialist
February is Black History Month, a time to celebrate the achievements of African Americans and honor the significant role and impact they have made throughout U.S. history.
In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Black History Month is a time to recognize both the well-known and the lesser-known significant contributions of African Americans to society, including:
- Ruby Bridges, whose attendance helped lead to the desegregation of schools.
- The invention of the three-light traffic signal by Garrett Morgan in 1925.
- Henrietta Lacks, whose cells (taken without her consent) were used to test the effects of radiation and poisons, playing a crucial role in the development of the polio vaccine.
All Americans have benefitted from these significant contributions. Unfortunately, Black Americans still experience disparities in income, education, health care and many other areas due to disparities that also call our attention during Black History Month.
Disparities
- Heart health is one of the most common areas where African Americans experience disparities, as NYSOFA reflected in a February 2023 column.
- African Americans comprise approximately 13% of the U.S. population, yet they make up more than 35% of all patients on dialysis due to kidney failure.
- Additionally, about 4.9 million African Americans over the age of 20 are living with either diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease.
- Cancer is the second-leading cause of death among Black people in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black men get and die from cancer at higher rates than men of other races and ethnicities. While White women have the highest rates of getting cancer, Black women have the highest rates of dying from cancer.
- Prostate cancer is more common in Black men. It tends to start at younger ages and grows faster than in men of other racial or ethnic groups, but medical experts do not know why.
Resources
- African American Health: Creating equal opportunities for health (CDC)
- Health Equity Resources for African American History Month (CDC)
- Health Disparities in the Aging: A Four-Part Learning Series (NYSOFA and partners)